Since protests against the Finance Bill 2024 began on June 18, 2024, a disturbing pattern of human rights abuses has emerged in Kenya.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) has documented at least 50 deaths, 59 abductions, and 682 arbitrary arrests. These numbers are spread across 17 counties, highlighting the widespread nature of the crackdown.
“Despite the continued calls for a stop to the abductions, we have noted that the kidnappings, illegal arrests and torture of innocent Kenyans have continued,” KNCHR adds.
Kenya’s Press Freedom Declines: A Troubling Trend
The media has not been spared. Journalists have been abducted, harassed, and even shot, as evidenced by the abduction of Macharia Gaitho and the shooting of Catherine Wanjeri wa Kariuki. This chilling effect on press freedom further undermines transparency and accountability.
“These acts of intimidation and violence are unacceptable and have a chilling effect on all journalists in Kenya,” said Deodatus Balile, President of The Eastern Africa Editors Society (EAES).
“It will go down in our history that in 2024 a journalist was abducted in Nairobi,” Mr Eric Oduor, Secretary General Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) in regards to the abduction and harassment of renowned editor Macharia Gaitho and the shooting of broadcast journalist Catherine Wanjeri wa Kariuki.
The acts were described as “not only acts of violence against individuals but blatant attacks on press freedom, a fundamental pillar of any democracy.”
The audacity of the criminal- impunity being witnessed in Kenya is symbolic of what is happening across the length and breadth of all 47 counties. At the heart of the criminal impunity directed at innocent citizens, there is political patronage and or I don’t care attitude by the executive the legislature and the judiciary.
The law enforcement agencies in the country have regrettably recorded next to zero returns in combating criminal activities and at worst apprehending murderers.
Most crimes remain unresolved and without even anybody having been apprehended and charged in court. The state of affairs as far as the police are concerned of bringing to book criminals in serious crimes of murder and violence is deplorable and scandalous.
Violation of Constitutional Rights
Article 19 of the Constitution of Kenya proclaims and entrenches the Bill of Rights as an integral part of Kenya’s democratic state and as the framework for social economic and cultural policies.
Article 19 of the Constitution further stipulates that the purpose of recognizing and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms is to preserve the dignity of individuals and communities and promote social justice and the realization of the potential of all human beings in Kenya.
In addition, it states that the rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights (a) belong to each individual and are not granted by the state (b) do not exclude other rights and fundamental freedoms not in the Bill of Rights but recognized or conferred by law so long as they are not inconsistent with the Bill of Rights and (c) are subject only the limitations set out in the Bill of Rights itself. It also expresses that it is the fundamental duty of the state and every state organ to observe, respect, protect, promote, and fulfil the rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights.
The right to life is at the core of all the fundamental rights under the Bill of Rights. Human dignity, freedom of conscience, religion, belief and opinion, freedom of expression, and freedom of the media are all sacred rights and freedoms that are the cornerstones of the Constitution of Kenya 2010.
These rights and fundamental freedoms under the Bill of Rights are under siege, being desecrated in Kenya on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis and without the state and state organs charged with the duty to observe, respect, protect and fulfil those rights, freedoms discharging their Constitutional mandate to do so.
Where are the law enforcement agencies and the Director of Public Prosecutions?
The law enforcement agencies, the Kenya police, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation CID, the National Intelligence Service, and the Director of Public Prosecutions are charged with investigating and detecting crime, apprehending criminals and prosecuting them in our courts.
Those duties are not being efficiently, diligently, competently, and expeditiously executed in Kenya and it is no wonder the forces of criminal impunity, some within the same agencies, are having a field day in the region terrorizing residents and now persecuting innocent citizens whose crime is seeking accountability.
And if journalists can be threatened, and shot, without anybody being apprehended who else is safe in Kenya?
Where are the elected leaders of Kenya as innocent citizens and children are being persecuted by lords of impunity?
Where are they as ordinary residents of Kenya live in mortal fear of criminals who can at will kill, maim, rape and violently take private property, terrorize the region?
Are the elected leaders on the side of impunity or the side of the ordinary citizen?
